Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Coleusxc3x97hybridus cultivar Kakegawa CE2.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Coleus plant, botanically known as Coleusxc3x97hybridus, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Kakegawa CE2.
The new cultivar is the product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Cartago, Costa Rica. The objective of the breeding program is to create new Coleus cultivars with a low spreading plant habit. The new Coleus was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single seedling resulting from a self-pollination of a proprietary selection of Coleusxc3x97hybridus identified as code number 9CL-1, not patented. The new Coleus was discovered and selected from within the seedling progeny from the stated self-pollination in a controlled environment in Cartago, Costa Rica in 2000. This seedling was selected on the basis of its low and outwardly spreading plant habit and unique leaf coloration.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken in Salinas, Calif. since 2000, has shown that the unique features of this new Coleus are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plants of the cultivar Kakegawa CE2 have not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature and light intensity without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Kakegawa CE2xe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Kakegawa CE2xe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Coleus cultivar:
1. Low and outwardly spreading plant habit.
2. Freely branching and vigorous growth habit.
3. Strong lateral branches.
4. Green and dark purple bi-colored leaves with dark purple-colored venation and green-colored petioles.
Plants of the new Coleus are most similar to plants of the parent selection. Plants of the new Coleus differ primarily from plants of the parent selection in foliage coloration.
Plants of the new Coleus can be compared to plants of the Coleus cultivar Salamander, not patented. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Cartago, Costa Rica, plants of the new Coleus differed from plants of the cultivar Salamander in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Coleus are more compact than plants of the cultivar Salamander.
2. Plants of the new Coleus are more freely branching than plants of the cultivar Salamander.
3. Plants of the new Coleus are more outwardly spreading in plant habit than plants of the cultivar Salamander.
Plants of the new Coleus can also be compared to plants of the Coleus cultivars Kakegawa CE1, disclosed in U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 10/753,810; Kakegawa CE3, disclosed in U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 10/753,808; Kakegawa CE5, disclosed in a U.S. Plant patent application filed concurrently; and Kakegawa CE8, disclosed in U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 10/753,806. However, in side-by-side comparisons conducted in Salinas, Calif., plants of the new Coleus differed primarily from plants of the cultivars Kakegawa CE1 and Kakegawa CE8 in plant and leaf size and from plants of the cultivars Kakegawa CE3 and Kakegawa CE5 primarily in foliage coloration.